I received a Tweet this morning from an account director from a digital advertising agency:

@ChristianeTrue I had to share this with you….talk about pharma out of the box. youtube.com/watch?v=1PblYO…

The video linked to is this one:

Follow the Wings

As a crowd gathers on a Manhattan street, they (and we) get to view an office building become the home of two frolicking Lunesta brand icons – giant green moth/butterflies that pop in and out of various windows, spreading their somnolent pixie dust or maybe attaching themselves to insomniacs. We just know the rooms they’re in because the windows flash green. The building also transforms into a glowing fairyland straight from a 1970s black light poster before the giant moth/butterly flies over the world and swoops down to Manhattan again.

Far out, man!

The light show/insectile invasion is to promote a free game, also called Follow the Wings, in which you can make the pretty moth/butterfly gather coins and flowers, while avoiding crows and hawks. It’s all for a good cause: “LUNESTA will contribute $1 to CARE the first time you play every day, plus every time you share with a friend (one share per friend). Our goal is to raise $100,000 for CARE,” the Website says.

There’s genius in this. Insomniacs spend many hours on the Internet (I should know, I am married to one). A game like this one, with very undemanding play, can help fill the late-night/early morning hours. Meanwhile, there’s all that Lunesta brand imagery and ad copy prominently displayed next to the game. This is a totally perfect match. Added bonus: a charity benefits.

The whole purpose of the light show, which was done at the end of October, was to drive awareness around the charity element of the campaign, I am told. “The client was open to it, which was great,” says an unnamed account executive at the agency that came up with the video idea. They wanted something innovative.”

The agency was pleased that Sunovion wanted to do something so much out of the typical pharma comfort zone.  “The moth has a really high brand recognition value, and to do something a little bit different was great,” another executive says.

Now excuse me, I have more coins and flowers to gather.

PI has announced the company has formed an exclusive strategic alliance with WorldOne, the largest healthcare data collection company in the world. The move creates one of the largest and most focused market research opportunities for medical professionals and life science companies in the United States, PI leaders say.

“Since we have one of the largest healthcare professional networks globally and the largest in the United States, naturally we were attracted to WorldOne’s established expertise in conducting and managing research, and to their global research footprint,” says Donato Tramuto, CEO and vice chairman, Physicians Interactive Holdings, which develops mobile and online clinical resources and solutions for healthcare professionals.

Headquartered in Marlborough, Mass., PI has built the largest network of online and mobile healthcare professional relationships in the United States, reaching more than 875,000 physicians, nurses, and allied health professionals in all major specialties, PI leaders note. The network includes what company executives describe as a premier, verified panel of more than 200,000 of the busiest and most sought-after physicians in the country.

Through the alliance with WorldOne, these medical professionals will have an immediate opportunity to share valuable insights with life science companies and participate in online and mobile market research that can guide and improve the quality of patient care.

“Essentially, for the healthcare research market, it’s the best combination in terms of our healthcare professional network and WorldOne’s expertise in research, design, and execution,” Mr. Trumato says.

Peter Kirk, CEO of WorldOne, says both parties immediately recognized the “exceptional business opportunity” to create the largest and highest quality market research network in the United States.

“We made sure to build a fully integrated solution, for both our clients and health professionals,” Mr. Kirk says. “More importantly, when combining PI’s network with WorldOne’s U.S. healthcare panel, we will reach a very impressive one million healthcare professionals. A significant part of this panel is 300,000+ AMA-verified physicians in the U.S. Market researchers now have access to the largest panel of practicing U.S. physicians ever assembled. This is a big step forward for WorldOne, Physicians Interactive, and the market research industry.”

Mr. Trumato says that life science companies want to build relationships with healthcare professionals in order to better understand how they’re practicing and treating patients, and what their greatest needs are.

“This can include everything from insights into medical conditions, treatment, needs for drug R&D, prescribing habits, and so on,” Mr. Trumato says. “Typically, WorldOne receives requests that include a variety of research on medicines such as concept testing, ad testing, naming, awareness, and trial & usage.”

While PI’s initial launch focus is on the U.S. market, Mr. Trumato says the company intends to expand its offerings internationally as it combines the global research capabilities of WorldOne with its Global Healthcare Network.

But Donato Tramuto, CEO and vice chairman of Physicians Interactive Holdings, believes providing physicians with the ability to save time while more effectively treating their patients does not necessarily require more innovation. The answer, he says, is integration.

PI’s work to provide that integration has just received the attention of – and a big boost from – Merck’s Global Health Innovation Fund, which has agreed to invest $17 million in the company, which develops mobile and online clinical resources and solutions for healthcare professionals.

Mr. Tramuto, one of the company’s founders, says he recognized the company’s growth over the last two years would attract investors to partner with PI to accomplish several goals – including to continue expansion of its product portfolio and to identify products and services that are needed by physicians at the point of care.

“These dollars will be partially used to continue to build on that strategy,” Mr. Tramuto says. “We are significantly moving forward in extending the ability to access these services on the web, the mobile, and the EHR.”

In addition, PI has defined several growth initiatives to deal with what company leaders consider the mature products within pharma. “[There are] thousands of mature products within pharma that have yet to go off patent, yet they don’t have, if you will, sales rep attention, and we feel there is a unique opportunity to capitalize on that. We will also use those dollars to optimize our user experience.”

The money from the investment will also be used to continue with the company’s acquisition strategy that Mr. Tramuto hopes will bring additional scale to the organization. “To have an organization like Merck’s Global Health Innovation Fund working with us – not only do they bring the dollars, but we have another voice that we can lean on,”Mr. Tramuto says.

Merck’s GHIF has taken a minority position, meaning the company also has one seat on PI’s board of directors. However, the partnership will not impact PI’s realtionships with other pharma companies, Mr. Tramuto says, because of the minority position. However, Merck’s global reach, along with its analytical firepower and insights, can benefit PI in moving forward with new solutions.

“They have vetted many of these companies that we are now going to be looking at,” Mr. Tramuto says. “They have other companies within their portfolio in terms of the innovation fund that I think are gong to be very valuable to us in terms of partnering or working together or selling services back and forth. They bring another level of extended talent. We’re 275 employees, and having that additional talent that I can lean on is very exciting.”

Mr. Tramuto’s approach to moving forward with new solutions in the mHealth age is to ask which benefits the company can provide to a physician at all stages of his or her encounter with a patient, including before or after a patient visit. Because PI will be looking at strategies not just from a mobile or web perspective, but also from an EHR perspective, Mr. Tramuto says he expects the company to also undergo a re-branding in 2012 with the tagline: “The power to do more.”

“We want to give healthcare professionals the power to do more, so we will continue to optimize and brainstorm our services and products at the point of care to get their time back to be more effective with the patient,” Mr. Tramuto says. That power can take the form of  reimbursement or compliance services, e-education, or the company’s current work with sample vouchers and coupons.

Providing access to such tools via mobile devices, the web, or through the EHR can impact physicians’ ability to practice more efficiently, Mr. Tramuto says. PI is looking to build the ability to allow physicians to order samples, vouchers, or coupons without having to leave their desks and access education materials instantly at their fingertips. The social aspect is also important, PI leaders believe, and the company is looking to embed a social media ability within its model to allow physicians to interact with each other. The goal is to provide a system that provides credentials and validates the physicians or experts who participate in the function.

Mr. Tramuto says the company is assessing a variety of its new solutions under the philosophy to think big, start small, and execute quickly. “We’re thinking big, but over the next six, seven weeks, we’ll narrow this down to two or three very significant additional products, which might be an acquisition, or we might build inside,” Mr. Tramuto says. “My goal is to double the revenue in the next 36 months. We doubled it in the first three years.”

Why is pharma so interested? As the sales force becomes much more compressed, as the generic intrusion takes on greater momentum, and as healthcare reform continues to kick in, the alternative is to find a lower-cost, but effective model to reach healthcare professionals. The aspect of achieving the ultimate goal – better healthcare – is also attractive, Mr. Tramuto says.

“Yes, we’re commercializing this stuff, but at the end of the day, I can put my head down at night knowing that if healthcare professionals are using this, and they have data at their fingertips, and they can get information about different diagnoses, and they can have the ability to help patients go and get their medication because [there are] coupons that are being automated from our system right down to the pharmacy, it’s going to provide for high-quality, safer, and more effective and efficient healthcare outcomes,” Mr. Tramuto says. “That’s what motivated me, and that’s what I think motivated Merck to see this as they’re now involved in a healthcare partnership.”

In moving forward, Mr. Tramuto says the company will make an announcement in the coming weeks about an agreement PI has signed with an EHR company.

“People says that physicians are not ready to accept technology – that’s a bunch of rubbish,” Mr. Tramuto says. “We haven’t caught up with physicians. Technology hasn’t caught up with what they want.”

Currently, when a physician uses an e-Rx system to prescribe a drug, he or she has to get out of the system to access other data, including drug safety information, and to obtain vouchers and coupons. PI’s intention is to integrate these tools so that when a drug is entered in the e-Rx system and the EHR system, all of the information will be readily available.

“That’s going to be available on the EHR, on the mobile, and on the web system,” Mr. Tramuto says. “I don’t think innovation is our problem anymore. There’s a lot of great innovative ideas out there … What we intend to do is to really focus on integration in those key areas that really involve drug usage.”

Mr. Daly joined the Medical Economics sales team in 1962 and worked there for two years before taking ad agency position at Klemtner and Robert A. Becker. He returned to the Medical Economics Company as publication manager of RN, which he turned into a successful title. The Medical Economics Company grew and was acquired first by Litton and then International Thompson. Mr. Daly became publisher of Medical Economics and eventually the CEO and chairman in 1981.

During Mr. Daly’s tenure, he was responsible for expanding the company with successful new products including Drug Topics and PDR. Under his guidance, the Medical Economics Company became the industry’s leading publisher, and Medical Economics magazine became the leading title. He retired in 1991.

Mr. Nickel spent 40 years in the medical advertising industry. After serving in the Air Force, he became a market research analyst at Pfizer, where he worked as a professional sales representative, marketing research manager, assistant product manager, and product manager. He then moved to a position at USV before moving to the agency side at J. Walter Thompson.

Following JWT, Mr. Nickel joined Sudler & Hennessey before helping co-founding Dorritie & Lyons in 1979. In 1994, he was named president and chief operating officer of the firm, now called Lyons Lavey Nickel Swift, and became chairman and CEO before retiring in 2008. During his time at LLNS, he was involved with launching blockbuster brands like Celebrex and Zoloft and the creation of the TWBA network.

Mr. Smith began his career as a designer at Sudler & Hennessey in 1951, working on Ayerst’s Inderal. He became art director and then creative director at the shop before joining Herb Lubalin to found Lubalin, Smith, Carnase, in 1967. In 1980, he returned to Sudler & Hennessey, where he created advertising campaigns and served as a mentor. His design credits include the PBS logo and Lucky Strike “Eve” package. He died in 2004 at age 79.

The inductees will be honored February 7, 2012 at a black tie awards dinner at the Pierre Hotel in New York. For tickets, visit www.mahf.com or email david@mahf.com.

During the lunch, the topic was debated again about why pharma can’t seem to generate any positive PR. We discussed things such as overly crafted press releases in dead, corporate language, the restrictions of CEOs to actually say anything off the cuff, etc. No ready solutions are apparent.

Back in the office, I checked out a post by Jonathan Richman of Bridge Worldwide. He’s proposing that all the cool movers-and-shakers in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries get together for a project he calls Healthy Thinkers. The idea is to have people in the pharmaceutical and healthcare advertising industries sign up and get them to work together on projects. People will propose requests to fill, have group votes on the larger projects to prioritize them, and then try and fulfill requests by getting that information in front of the person who could best help. “This might be support for an important initiative, the ear of someone who can bring a new idea or product innovation to life, or even help paying for a prescription,” Mr. Richman says.

If real-life pharma people can step out beyond the corporate shadow and be seen doing things to help make other people’s lives better – and even better, actively talk about what they’re doing, without corporate interference – maybe that’s the first step in improving the industry’s image. By crowdsourcing and sharing ideas in a Reddit-like format (but without the silliness of Reddit), some good things can happen.

Back when I was a newspaper reporter, my favorite stories to do turned out to be the ones where the community stepped up in response to help. People would read the stories, and then I’d get a phone call asking where they could send money or offer their assistance. With the advent of social networking sites, people don’t have to wait for the story to come to them through traditional media; one of their friends or family will pass it on in a link.

Hopefully, the supporters of pharma and healthcare will step up, take a look around Healthy Thinkers, offer their own thoughts, and make some valuable suggestions. And people will get helped who normally would not have gotten it.

The “director of worldwide innovation” at Pfizer is a new job for Joe; previously, he was product director and team leader for the biologic Enbrel. The product and the position came over to Pfizer when that company acquired Wyeth.

Today, Joe is at Kevin Kruse’s ePatient Connections conference in Philadelphia, and I’ve been following some of the Tweets from there. Imagine my amusement when he made an announcement during his presentation there that he wants patients and consumers to e-mail him with their ideas about how the company can better engage with them. He promises to read them. (Hat tip to Wendy Blackburn, executive VP of InTouch Solutions, for Tweeting that out.)

UPDATE: To clarify that, Joe wants “input specifically on what high-impact areas of eHealth I should focus on, not just any old suggestions for Pfizer. We have other channels for that.”

(Not for nothing, Joe, but if you’re putting yourself out there as a real, live, human contact, at a company that is rather opaque to the consumer, expect to get contacted about anything and everything. My work phone number and e-mail are the most prominent ones on our site, and if the caller/e-mailer can’t get the exact person he or she wants, I’m the one who gets the call/e-mail because I have the fancy title and therefore must be omniscient.)

So, you heard the man. He can be reached at joe.shields@pfizer.com. And good luck getting through all that, Joe

The Rose Flaum Foundation, which is named after his mother, is pretty much funded by Sander himself, who provides $100,o00 a year, according to the article. “I decided to die broke,” he jokes.

I would never have guessed, from Sander’s soft-spoken and impeccable diction, that he ever stuttered. But I’m glad he’s helping out others who also suffer from stuttering. Speech problems can be agonizing and with all sorts of programs and resources being cut in many public school systems, the kids who need the help may not be able to get it.

As a child, I had my own speech problems – lisping, mostly – to the extent that I had to attend speech therapy classes once a week. I was very young, only in first grade at the time, and all I remember is playing lots of “Go Fish” with the instructor and other students. It was fun to me, but to this day, I really don’t like public speaking. At least I was in a school district that could provide the instruction.

Thanks, Sander, for shedding a little more light on these problems and what can be done to help.

Mark Senak of Eye on FDA broke the news on Twitter that FDA has launched a new program, the “Truthful Drug Advertising and Promotion Ad Program,” or the “Bad Ad Program.” Ed Silverman, AKA Pharmalot, also reports on it here.

“The Bad Ad Program will help healthcare providers recognize misleading prescription drug promotion and provide them with an easy way to report this activity to the agency,” says Thomas Abrams, director of DDMAC, in a statement.

The program will be rolled out in three phases. In Phase 1, DDMAC will engage health care providers at specifically selected medical conventions and partner with specific medical societies to distribute educational
materials. Phases 2 and 3 will expand the FDA’s collaborative efforts and update the educational materials developed for Phase 1.

Health care professionals are encouraged to report a potential violation in drug promotion by sending an email to badad@fda.gov or calling 877-RX-DDMAC. Reports can be submitted anonymously; however, the FDA encourages providers to include contact information so that DDMAC officials can follow up.

Doctors are being encouraged to report promotional violations to FDA – omission of risk information, promotion of unapproved use, and overstatements of effectiveness. The examples offered by FDA show violations that could occur at speaker programs, medical conferences, and in-office interactions with sales representatives.

DDMAC traditionally has monitored promotional materials and conventions for violations, and conducted investigations based on industry complaints, but this seems to mark the first time the agency will really be able to get a sense of what’s actually happening in the physicians’ office and speakers events. “… the agency has limited ability to monitor promotional activities that occur in private,” FDA officials say.

One can almost hear the frantic scrambling occurring in the offices of every field force manager at every company, in every marketing department, etc. The sense of consternation must be epic.

Reuters reports that the program was created from the input and assistance of two former pharma pitchmen who joined the agency:

“After joining the agency as ad watchdogs, the pair realized ‘we don’t really have a presence out in the field where we used to work,’ said Bob Dean, one of the FDA employees who helped create the program.”

Rich Meyer at World of DTC Marketing asks, “How can an agency be more clueless?”

“Like physicians don’t have enough to do right now,” Mr. Meyer says. “This tells me that DDMAC/FDA is in deep trouble monitoring drug industry marketing and rather than ramp up reviewers they are asking for outside help.”

Transparency. Respect. Integrity. Just a few of the principals cited by 2010 HBA Woman of the Year Deirdre P. Connelly, who serves as president of North America Pharmaceuticals, GlaxoSmithKline. Ms. Connelly, and the many rising stars honored at the event, are most definitely a force to be reckoned with.

Following a humid cocktail networking event, decadent salad, and sinful dessert, the inspiring reality of women in the business of healthcare became extremely evident.

Laurie Cooke, CEO, Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association, highlighted some of the more recent accomplishments of the organization like the addition of the new Florida chapter while enthusiastically ushering in “a new decade of leadership.”

Susan Torroella, president, HBA, chief operating officer, MEDEX Global Group Inc., spoke altruistically about how “success can blind you,” citing 2010 as the “year of the chapter” for the organization as it sets its sights to think more globally while acting more locally.

The 2010 Star Volunteer had no shortage of inspiring verbiage, which did not come as a surprise. Charlene Prounis, founder and managing partner of advertising agency Flashpoint Medica, has served as president on both the corporate and chapter level.

Ms. Prounis has been extremely active with the HBA for more than a dozen years. She is responsible for initiating the Leadership Conference, POWER study and Rising Stars during her first presidency; starting the Metro Chapter of the organization in 2004; serving on the HBA board for a 10 year period; co-chairing the Woman of the Year fundraising committee for the last three years which broke all records; serving as a chapter mentor and remaining involved in promotional material development for the ACE program and the Metro chapter.

“I love the HBA!” Ms. Prounis hollered over the mic with arms raised, as she thanked the inspiring women, mentors, and men who have contributed to the growth and sustainability of women in healthcare and in the business community.

As I swiftly scanned the deep spread of faces, equally impressive was the number of men mingling in the audience, including healthcare advertising industry movers like Al Topin, president, Topin & Associates Inc.

Mark Swindell, president, vaccines, Pfizer U.S. Pharmaceuticals, and HBA’s 2010 Honorable Mentor, referenced that more than 60 attendees from Pfizer were present at the event. He also cited the great responsibility that exists for his own pharmaceutical powerhouse to do good in the industry, while encouraging attendees to forge ahead in fostering the professional growth and development of others so each individual can realize their full potential.

Having been at my first HBA Woman of the Year event, I continued to ponder my own existence in the healthcare industry as a writer, as well as the ever-evolving state of my colleagues back at all of our offices and out in the world, such as Chicago where Editor-In-Chief Chris Truelove had been tirelessly Tweeting from the 2010 BIO International Convention.

I circle back, to glean inspiration from a quote of a quote: “I do not think much of a man [or woman] who is not wiser today than yesterday” — Abraham Lincoln. As Ms. Connelly cited good old Honest Abe, I remembered her chief principals once again: Transparency. Respect. Integrity. Patient focus. And, last but not least: Joy.

Founding fathers aside, although we still have a lot to learn, we have so many to learn from. Today was proof that it is amid these fundamental values that we truly gain sustainable viability — whether it is in our families as mothers, in the community as volunteers, or in business as market movers.

Women truly bring a unique voice of coercion to healthcare — charting change with an iron fist in a velvet glove. Keep on keepin’ on!

I had wondered, since Publicis acquired Razorfish last year from Microsoft for $530 million, if something like this was going to happen. Razorfish’s health practice had been growing and my initial supposition was that with the acquisition, Publicis was going to fold Razorfish’s digital health practice into Digitas Health (Publicis owns Digitas, Digitas Health’s parent). But Razorfish and Publicis executives believed that the network could support two digital health agencies, according to Katy Thorbahn, senior VP, general manager, Razorfish Health.

According to Ms. Thorbahn, the impetus to separate out the healthcare business of Razorfish came last spring, when Razorfish had a change in leadership. Clark Kokich, who was CEO, moved to the chairman role, Bob Lord took over as CEO, and Dave Friedman took on the role as president of the Americas.

“As we were going through that change, Bob and Dave started to step back and look at the Razorfish business overall, and started to think about how do we think, as a brand, we can drive the most growth for our business overall and deliver the best work for our clients,” Ms. Thorbahn says. “When we took a look at that, and looked specifically at the amount of healthcare expertise we had built up, specifically in Philadelphia but also throughout the business, and started to think about the questions that clients were coming to ask us about, and the challenges that they were raising for us to solve … the landscape was pointing towards the fact that this was probably a really good time for us to verticalize the business under health.

“This enables us to make some different decisions around investment strategies, and talent, and all of those things to put forth a world-class digital healthcare agency, to turn loose the power of Razorfish onto that space. And ultimately, the reason that we did that was we believed that it will not only result in more innovative and business-building work for our clients, but also do the same for our business.”

When Razorfish was acquired by Publicis, the senior leadership there agreed that Razorfish Health should be separated out from Razorfish. “They [Publicis leaders] felt very excited about it and of course they’ve had some really great success in the healthcare space and felt that there was definitely some room for another strong player like us,” Mr. Thorbahn says. “Hence we got the go-forward from all the way up to Maurice [Levy, CEO of Publicis] and everyone else to stay focused on this.”

Razorfish Health is in no way a “conflict shop” for Digitas Health, Ms. Thorbahn says.

“Instead, what we’re trying to do is hold a distinct offering under the Razorfish brand for those clients who are gravitating more towards the types of things where we focus and where we bring into the market,” she says. “So for example, if you think about Razorfish, there’s a reason why we’re Razorfish Health – we’re very much growing out of the Razorfish brand and the business. Our goal there is to create experiences for our clients that build their business, and so we’re very much focused within the digital space and putting digital very much front and center and at our core, and looking at how, through insights, that we can glean about the end customer – whether that’s patient, whether that’s physician, whether that’s pharmacist – and how do we best use digital for our client’s advantage.

“That’s a little bit different than if you look at what Digitas Health is doing, where their scope right now is a bit larger, beyond that. Obviously they’re very much digital at their core, but they’re also handling more traditional work as well. In terms of how we’re working together, it’s really not that kind of a structure that we have set up, it’s more about how do we, under Publicis, have two really strong brands in the healthcare space that are digitally led and that have unique offerings for clients.”

Razorfish Health plans to be less specialized in some ways than sister agency Digitas Health, which has traditionally focused on pharma. “We obviously have a lot of pharma business, we believe that’s really important,” Ms. Thorbahn says. “But we’re also looking to be a little bit broader in healthcare, in terms of wellness brands, in terms of OTC, payors, and such.”

Another key differentiator between the two agencies is how they use digital. “Our goal there is to create experiences for our clients that build their business, and so we’re very much focused within the digital space, putting digital very much front and center and at our core,” Ms. Thorbahn says. “And looking at how, through insights, that we can glean about the end customer, whether that’s the patient, whether that’s the physician, whether that’s the pharmacist, on down the line – how do we best use digital for our client’s advantage. That’s a little bit different than if you look at what Digitas Health is doing, where their scope right now is a bit larger. Obviously they’re very much digital at their core, but they’re also handling more traditional work as well.”

According to Ms. Thorbahn, the agency has about 50 brand assignments, but due to nondisclosure agreements, can only list four clients on their Website: Aetna, the Alzheimer’s Association, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and Genentech (Razorfish designed the latter’s Website, gene.com).

Razorfish Health will continue to headquartered in Philadelphia, out of the building on North Eighth Street and Willow that also houses Shampoo, a local nightclub. “It is sort of an entertaining part of the building, particularly if we’re there late in the evenings, we get to see if it’s goth night or teen night, or techno,” Ms. Thorbahn laughs. (Editor’s note: I fully confess to have sharked a Razorfish parking spot many a time when attending events at the club.)

Razorfish Health does have offices in New York, Chicago, and San Francisco, and is supporting work globally through London and Paris. But cool nightclub neighbor in Philly aside, “Long term, our goal is that Razorfish Health will have physical footprints elsewhere, both in the U.S .and globally,” Ms. Thorbahn says. “We’re going to expand our physical presence as we go along, as the business grows.”

You can check out Razorfish Health’s blog re:plenish here, and their live Twitter Health Conversation tracker here.